Beloved TV icon Mary Tyler Moore is “breaking the hearts” of her closest family and friends as she says her farewells during what may be her last holiday season.
Behind the closed doors of the sprawling Connecticut manse she shares with her devoted hubby, Dr. Robert Levine, the ailing star, 77, has gathered her kith and TV kin.
“No one can leave without being in tears. Mary, herself, seems to know this is her final Christmas. But she’s trying hard to make the holiday joyful,” an insider said.
The well-wishers include Valerie Harper, who played her best pal on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” and former co-stars Georgia Engel, Cloris Leachman and Betty White.
As The ENQUIRER reported, Mary has lost her decades-long struggle with numerous health woes. In addition to diabetes, which led to near blindness, she’s suffered kidney and heart disease as well as Alzheimer’s and dementia-related symptoms.
“Despite that, she’s had her staff deck out her home in Christmas finest – and holiday music is being piped throughout the house. … It’s very bittersweet,” the source said.
Mary has followed her Yuletide tradition of hanging a stocking on the mantle for her son Richie, who died of a self-inflicted accidental gunshot wound in 1980. "In death, she knows she’ll be reunited with him,’” the insider said.
